Music Can Help People With Brain Damage Gain Consciousness

Listening to familiar music can help people who've lost consciousness due to brain damage.

BY AMBER MOORE | AUG 30, 2012 03:15 PM EDT

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Tagsmusic, brain damage, consciousness

Listening to familiar music can help people who've lost consciousness due to brain damage.

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(Photo : REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni )

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The present research on effect of music was conducted on four people who were at different stages of consciousness; two in a state of coma, one in vegetative state and one in minimally conscious state. Researchers recorded brain activity of the participants while they listened to a list of names being played out. The list included the patient's name as well and it was preceded by either a song that the patient was familiar with or with musical noise, New Scientist reports

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The experiment was repeated on 10 healthy volunteers. Researchers found that participants who listened to familiar music had better brain response when they heard their names than when they listened to musical noise. In volunteers, music did not have any effect on the brain's response when hearing the person's name.

Lead researcher Fabien Perrin says that familiar music "activates our autobiographical memory - so it could make it easier for the subsequent perception of another autobiographical stimulus such as your name."  Perrin adds that there could be another reason that explains brain's activity while listening to music - "music enhances arousal or awareness, so maybe it temporarily increases consciousness and the discrimination of your name becomes easier," New Scientist reports.

There has been plenty of recent research on regaining consciousness but with conflicting results. One study suggests that voice messages, not music, help improve consciousness in people while another suggests that music might help people in the vegetative state.

"The familiar music might be causing an emotional arousal effect, and once [the patient with brain damage is] aroused, there is a small window that opens for increased communication and the brain responds to the name," said Carsten Finke, a neurologist at Charité Medical School in Berlin, Germany. Finke is not a part of the research team, reports New Scientist.

The study was presented at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness meeting in Brighton, UK, last month.

 

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Read more at http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/11820/20120830/music-people-brain-damage-gain-consciousness.htm#b9KAsxeffjCHs0bL.99

Non-Human Consciousness Exists Say Experts. Now What?

Singularity University Affiliate, Contributor

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Phillip Low at Singularity University

This post is written by Brian Hoffstein, guest writer at Singularity University

Have you ever considered the consciousness, or unconsciousness, of your dog? Well, a group of neuroscientists have been thinking on the subject pretty seriously, and it was announced last week that “humans are not the only conscious beings in the universe“.

Earlier this month, some of the leading scientists from around the world congregated at the Hotel Du Vin in Cambridge to discuss the evidence that has amassed over the years. The experts reached a unanimous decision that animals – specifically mammals and birds – are in fact conscious beings. Through advancements in brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and EEG machines, the scientists concluded that animals show a sufficient degree of characteristics that indicate they are not as non-human as some had believed. The official decision was reached late into the night after the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on July 7th.

the declaration of consciousness

Organized by Philip Low, CEO of NeuroVigil and inventor of the iBrain, the group consisted of 25 of the planet’s top minds on the mind, including honorary guest Stephen Hawking.  The scientists discerned the key differences in human and animal brains, mainly found in the frontal cortex, do not play a role in the phenomenon we associate with consciousness. The decision does not in any sense define what consciousness is, which will be a debate that continues to rage on. But moving forward, there are many consequences to this finding that will need to be addressed as we look to develop a more humane relationship with animals.

This announcement arises in a manner similar to the Pluto files in 2006, when the world’s leading astronomer’s demoted Pluto from planet to “dwarf planet”. Both of these events took place outside of the public sphere, and, while not necessarily groundbreaking conclusions, comprise much room for debate. It seems in this day and age, with prolific scientific discoveries being heralded left and right, it is time for some sort of established framework for making decisions of this order. The “philosopher king” mentality, where leading experts decide for the group, has emerged as the status quo – but moving forward it will be interesting to see how the groupmind of the Internet will react.

As mankind continues to explore the universe, many more discoveries will prompt an official announcement such as the one Phillip Low delivered this week at Singularity University.  Concluding animals have consciousness might be news, but it’s not as revolutionary as some of the things we can expect in the future. What happens when we build the first robot that passes the Turing Test? Would it be considered conscious too? Who would have the final say in the matter?

On another note, with the recent Higgs discovery Astronomers and Theoretical Physicists are entering their next phase of scientific inquiry. Super Symmetry, dark matter, dark energy and the multiverse are all questions waiting to be answered. Both in the microcosm of the quantum field and the macrocosm of the cosmos, there exist potential discoveries that could totally transform our perspective of life in the universe. All of these open-ended questions, in addition to the black swans we should (paradoxically) expect to encounter along the way, will need to be accounted by some type of bureaucratic standard. How this plays out is still up in the air – but at this point it would be hard to bet against the Internet. Hypothetically speaking if the old-school establishment says one thing but the powers-that-be on Wikipedia say something else, who would you listen to?

This story produced in cooperation with SU partner site Singularity Hub

From Scientific America - Football on the Brain

More Than One Blow For A Concussion In Football

A recent study shows that it's multiple blows to the head that lead to a concussion in football. Christie Nicholson reports

February 4, 2012 | 4

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As you watch the Patriots and Giants smash into each other Sunday, consider this.

For two years researchers studied head impacts among 24 high school football players. They compared helmet-sensor data with brain imaging scans, along with cognitive tests. And they found that it’s not just a single blow to the head that causes concussion—it can also be the cumulative effect of multiple blows. The last impact is then the last straw for an already compromised brain. The research is in the Journal of Biomechanics.

Players received from 200 to nearly 1,900 hits to the head in one season, and sensors recorded impact forces of 20 to 100 Gs.

Of the players studied, six were officially concussed. But 17 more showed brain changes in areas associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease known to affect concussed players. The brain scans also revealed that players relied on different strategies than did most people during cognitive tests, due to a reduction in their functional abilities.

Other studies have shown that once a player suffers a concussion, they are four times more likely to sustain a second one. But concussion or not, repeated blows to the head take their toll.  

—Christie Nicholson

Do we Die ? Best Evidence circa 2011

Books that influenced me



We Don't Die  -  George Anderson, Joel Martin, Patricia Romanowski



The Afterlife Experiments -  Dr. Gary Schwartz